The invention generally relates to a ball dropping assembly and technique for use in a well.
Various tools (valves, chokes, packers, perforating guns, injectors, as just a few examples) typically are deployed downhole in a well during the well's lifetime for purposes of testing, completing and producing well fluid from the well. A number of different conveyance mechanisms may be used for purposes of running a particular tool into the well. As examples, a typical conveyance mechanism device may be a coiled tubing string, a jointed tubing string, a wireline, a slickline, etc.
Once deployed in the well, a given tool may be remotely operated from the surface of the well for purposes of performing a particular downhole function. For this purpose, a variety of different wired or wireless stimuli (pressure pulses, electrical signals, hydraulic signals, etc.) may be communicated downhole from the surface of the well to operate the tool.
Another way to remotely operate a downhole tool is through the deployment of a ball from the surface of the well into a tubing string that contains the tool. More specifically, a ball may be dropped into the central passageway of the string from the surface of the well. The ball travels through the string and eventually lodges in a seat of the string to block fluid communication through the central passageway. As a result of the blocked fluid communication, the tubing string may be pressurized for purposes of actuating the tool. The above-described traditional approach of deploying a ball in the string to actuate a tool of the string assumes that, in general, no obstruction exists in the central passageway, which would prevent the ball from traveling from the surface of the well to the seat in which the ball lodges.